North Carolina-Houston Peanuts-February 2

I am the dad to five adult children. As they were growing up I attempted to remind them they were special and to implore them to learn something new. My goal was to do that daily.

In 2016 my goal is to learn something new daily on the people, places, and things that make North Carolina special.

The past few days the weather has started to turn warmer and for many sports fans that means baseball games are not to far behind. In fact on the NCAA Division II level college baseball games will be taking place in earnest this week.

A stable of watching a baseball game is roasted peanuts. There is a business in North Carolina that does quite a business with roasted peanuts. That company is Houston Peanut’s.

Houston’s Peanuts is a actually a trademark name for the Southern Peanut Company.

They began doing business in Dublin, North Carolina in 1936. Daniel Brisson, a native of the small farming community, began to produce peanut seed for the farmers, and to buy their crops in the fall when they were harvested. After he was killed in an automobile accident in 1941, his eldest son, Dixon, took over the business, while a younger son, Houston, left for World War II. At the end of the war, Houston returned home to work for the family business.

That son is the Houston in the name of the peanuts. Houston Brisson died in September 2006 at the age of 82. He had a son named Houston Jr. Who still involved in the business today.

In the early 60’s, Houston ventured out into the processing world with Peanut Processors, Inc. He started the business with two products , Roasted in shell peanuts and Roasted Salted in shell peanuts. These products remain popular today. At this point, peanuts were produced for other companies under their label, sold in bulk, and the house label of Houston’s Peanuts was born.

Today the company Peanut Processors Inc has a plant in Sherman TX along with Dublin, NC. They even have a gift shop now in Dublin, NC.

Can’t wait to baseball season gets here and dig into a bag of roasted peanuts from North Carolina.